I'm Here
by perfect.imperfectionxo
Summary: She'd spent a year unsure that he would ever come back and she'd spend the next one trying to hold things together. Spoby. On indefinite hiatus.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Ugh, I'm a bit lame. I never seem to post more than one fic per fandom, so sorry to all the people who read my stuff. However, I'm hoping to break the habit. Anywho, this is a Spoby fic, as they're my ultimate PLL otp. Hope you enjoy. By the way, I don't own pll or the likes.

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After a year, he finally came back.

I remember the feeling of exhilaration as I saw his dingy old truck pull up to the aging Marshall-Cavanaugh home. Hell, I could even hear it stop, like it was on its last breath. It had been, of course, a noisy thing from the day I brought it to him, though. He'd very much taken care of my gift to him.

It took everything I had not to rush over to the house and return to him – and them some, it seemed, because I was out of my room and down the stairs in a heartbeat. I didn't even stop for shoes – not that I cared about that. Shoes were the last thing I had on my mind. I even shoved Melissa on my way, and we'd been in a truce for six months now.

I basically ran down the road. The sidewalk tried to burn the soles of my feet. I didn't care. It fetl like there were miles between us. It felt like I'd never reach him, like this was all a cruel, twisted dream and he would fade away as fast as he'd returned, with no explanation, no goodbye, no nothing.

Only, he was real. He was there. I could see him. I was a few yards from being able to touch him. Oh, how I ached to touch him, even just once more. I'd missed him, to say the least. Yearned for him, hated myself for him leaving, my lies abusing his love. Him gone was no longer for the best, though. Jenna had been taken down. Was that why he was back? Because she was gone?

It had to be. If we was going to come for me, it would have taken him less than a year. He probably didn't love me anymore. Going to him was probably pointless. He probably hated me by now.

I slowed as soon as he saw me, taking in the serious, grim look on his face. His body went stiff, and I froze. Oh, God. I was right. He hated me now. He didn't want to see me. I was getting in the way. I was ruining his day. I was unwanted. Oh, God, what had I gotten myself in to?

"T-toby," I managed to stammer, frozen mid-step. I look him over and oh, how similar he he was to before he left. The same beautiful, brilliant blue eyes and prominent cheekbones. The same intense stare, the same muscular arms and body. The same Toby. My Toby. Was my Toby. No longer is.

"Spencer," he responded in an unsure tone, and I watched him bit his lower lip. He didn't do that unless he was highly nervous. I was unnerving to him. Why hadn't I turned back when I still had the chance to?

"Toby,." I filled the last few steps between us, wrapping my arms tight around his waist. I reveled in the warmth of his body, burying my head in his chest and trying to remove all the space between us. After a moment, most likely of surprise, his arms snaked around my waist in return, squeezing me lightly and resting his chin on the top of my head.

"Toby, I'm so sorry, for ev-" I began to plea, my breath heavy and tears forming in the corners of my eyes. He cut me off, though, shushing me and he pushed me against the side of his truck. His hands moved to my hips, and he forced space between our bodies. "No," I begged, trying to pull him back flush against my body.

"Sopence," he whispered, not letting me have his body again. I looked up at him, my face a plea for the touch. His expression was a mix of happy and sad, but as soon as I stopped struggling, I watched the sad go away. He reached up and stroked my cheek with his thumb, sending an electric shock through my body with the touch. He didn't hate me. If he hated me, he wouldn't touch me, not like this. Not like he did when he loved me. God, I'd missed him.

"Relax," he said to me, pressing his lips to my forehead, "we've both made mistakes, so don't apologize." He looked down at me, still caressing my cheek, and in one spontaneous instant, I was kissing him. He pressed his body back against mine. I flung my arms around his neck, refusing to let him break our kiss. He was never ending this. He was never leaving again. I wouldn't let him.

After a moment, our tongues danced together. His one hand ran along my side, hitting sensitive spots, and the other stayed on my cheek, keeping me close. It was perfect, too perfect, and it seemed never-ending. It seemed like time had stopped, and there was just us. Just Toby and I, and eternal never-ending bliss because he loved me still and nothing could change that. I wouldn't let it. Couldn't let it. Refused to let it.

It seemed soon, too soon, though, before he pulled away. My hands fell from his head to loosely hanging around his neck. My heart was racing a mile a minute. I took a second to catch my breath, eying his chest, before I looked back at his beautiful face. He was wearing a devilish grin.

"Did you miss me or something?" He asked, returning the hand on my face to my side. No, I cried internally, don't stop touching me, please. I cocked my head to the side, pretending to contemplate for a second, and then shook my head.

"Or something. There are no words for how much I wanted to see you again, Toby." I went in for another kiss, but he pulled away. I naturally let out a small whine, causing the grin he wore to grow even bigger. He didn't respond, though. We stood three, body against body, eyes tuned in to only each other.

"Toby... I-I'm sorry about what happened... with Emily and Wren... It's just, I didn't want to see you hurt anymore and I panicked and then you left and it broke my heart even more than I'd already broken it, and then you didn't come back, and I was sure you hated me bu-"

"Spencer Hastings, I couldn't hate you even if I tried, and I did try. But you know what, I'm here now, and you won't be rid of me as easily as you were last time." With that, he kissed me again, and in that instant I could just feel that maybe, just maybe, things could be fine between us once again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** Ugh, I never intended to do this as more than a one-part thing. Buut after... three follows, a like of what I'd done, and a review hoping for me to continue, I figured hey - why not? So, I figured I should expand upon a few details. This is set a year after Toby left in 2x17 (I think it was 2x17). It's AU in the sense that Jenna was A, not Mona, and she wasn't caught until about a month before this starts. Toby's just came back. And I'm sorry to any Hanna/Haleb fans for the role Hanna will probably play in this.

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**Spencer:**  
When the girls found out Toby was back, there were mixed reactions all around. None of them seemed to share my ecstatic mood, which I didn't like too much. Aria seemed pleased, we'd shared a lot of conversations about missing out boys when she had me convinced that she wasn't seeing Ezra. I think she was glad to know that I was getting him back. Hanna seemed pissed off, aggravating me. There was no need for her to be mad, it wasn't like this affected her in any way.

"He doesn't deserve your attention," she insisted, though, with narrowed eyes and a furrowed brow. "He just left you here, and he comes back and now he thinks things will be just peachy. No. That's not how it goes, Spencer," she tried to argue. I tried not to pay it any mind. I had better things to do, and it's not like it was his fault that I tried to get rid of him... The thought of that upset me. I know it had been for the best, but I hated it.

Emily was understanding, for the most part. She'd watch me hurt when we were in the hospital and I had her tell him I was seeing Wren. She seemed pretty happy to find out things weren't bad between Toby and I. She had a bright smile on her face, texting her new girlfriend, a nice young woman by the name of Samara that she had been seeing at one point in time before Maya had came back from sober camp. I could tell she wasn't fully happy about it, though. She wasn't as good at hiding things as she tried to be. I guess I should expect that, she haw the troubles first hand.

What was said and done, though, was said and done, and I hated seeing then have such a negative opinion. They were my best friends, the three people I was closest to, my secret keepers. Seeing them disprove dug a hole in my heart.

"Come on guys, please," I said to them, letting out an exasperated sigh. We each had a corner of my bed, and I glanced at all three of them. "Try and be happy? For me?"

"I don't see why he should get any of your attention. He left and didn't even say goodbye to you." Hanna responded, letting her snark shine through. She was pretty, and a good friend, but she was good at being rude about things when she wanted to (or, to quote her, "they didn't seem right" - how could this not seem right? It was perfect).

"Because _I _made him leave," I justified, pulling the corner of a mauve comforter over my feet and staring at the window.

"You think he's just going to come back and woo you like nothing happened, Spencer? Come on. The guy's convinced you cheated on him your sister's ex-fiancee."

"Hanna, you don't bring up Wren. I'll make he sure he finds out the truth about that. Because now it can't hurt him."

"You're still making a bad choice," Hannah said nonchalantly, examining the nails on her left hand carefully, as if they were suddenly interesting. I narrowed my eyes, bringing up something that would upset her just as much as this was doing to me.

"If this was you and Caleb, again, you'd insist it was just fine," I returned, slapping her hand away from her face from across the bed. It was well known that her and Caleb's relationship was rocky, and given that he was spending more time in California lately didn't help that any."So, how about next time you two split over some stupid thing, I tell you you're making a bad choice by going back to him. Because honestly, that sort of relationship has a tendency of being unheal-"

"Okay, I'm done with this," Hanna snapped at me, pushing herself off the bed, raising her arms up and walking off.

"Good," I muttered. "I'm not around you to have you ruin my mood."

After that I noticed the questioning looks on Aria and Emily's faces, and I glanced down at the bed.

"What? She coulda just been happy for me. It's not like I bash her and Caleb."

"You know Caleb's a touchy subject with her," Emily said, a look of concern forming on her face. "You know she's having troubles with him."

"I know. But I was making a very reasonable point that she basically asked me to hand her on a silver platter." I lowered my head. "I didn't like what she was saying," I admitted.

It _scared_ me, to be honest. It scared me a lot. Things had felt perfect when I was with him, but what was one short time so say how things would play out?

**Toby:**  
I'd never been popular around Rosewood, and I'd only ever had one reason to be here. When that reason had gone away, I'd left. It hadn't been easy, none of it had been, from the moment Emily told me about Spencer and her british doctor boyfriend to the moment I decided I was going to give it a chance and come back to Rosewood. Never in my life had I been as angry as I was when I watched Dr. Kingston walk in to my hospital room, smile on his face, and tell me I was just fine. No, I wasn't just fine. I was pissed, I felt like my body was about to explode and if my wrist hadn't been broken, his nose would have been.

I would have hit him so hard he would have felt it a week from then.

California treated me well, though - as good as it could. No one knew me, no one knew Alison, no one knew anything that had gone on in Rosewood, and for once in my life I was actually free from the daily reminders that I wasn't good enough to be around everything. I even found a girl who didn't turn out to be a lesbian or hate me at first. It had seemed great, perfect even. She'd been beautiful, with copper corkscrew curls of hair, such a childlike innocent look, but absolutely beautiful on her. I'd been infatuated with her though, for the Spencer in her.

It didn't take long before I saw the Spencer in her. They had the same perfectionist attitude, same drive to be the best. Hell, they both even had sisters named Melissa, though hers wasn't a bitch like Spencer's was.

As soon as I realized my favorite parts of her were the Spencer parts, I left her, though. Her name was... Hailey? Hannah? I don't even remember. It was early on.

Coming back to Rosewood had been an even more difficult choice than leaving it. Leaving was because I knew my thing with Spencer was over, as much as I had loved her. Coming back left open the chance that she wouldn't be fond of my return, that she'd still be seeing her older man, or just wasn't in to me. Coming back meant returning to potentially being ostracized, and it meant that things could go really badly for me.

I was in luck though, and I was thrilled about that.

The relief that flooded through my body as I saw her shortly after getting out of my truck was enough to overtake me. Unsure, however, my body froze, and I looked her over. Still as beautiful as before, and her chocolate brown hair had a grown a few inches, and when she said my name, shock written on her face and barely able to speak, I felt like I was about to melt entirely.

"Spencer," I returned, blinking a few times. I didn't even have time to make a move before she'd ran to me, snaked her arms around my waist and buried herself in my body. In an instant I was holding her too, cutting off her apologies and explanations and not letting any words ruin the moment. The familiar feel of her lips against mine was enough to tell me that she'd missed me. Maybe -probably- not half as much as I'd missed seeing her, given the fact that she'd had her doctor, but she had. She'd missed me, and that was good.

I'd really wanted to fix things, and as soon as we split ways - we stayed at the truck for well over half an hour, making up for lost time - I felt wrong. I mean, what if she still had her doctor and was just taking me along for the ride again? No, she wouldn't do that. Spencer Hastings was better than that.

Hell, after a while, and a couple interesting messages from Emily, I barely even believe I was being told the truth about that.

After all this time, I didn't deserve to see her again. Not after leaving without even saying goodbye, or talking to her first about... something. Anything.

I didn't deserve to, but I was a very selfish person, and I wasn't about to give up what I wanted again.

I didn't even enter the house, unable to take even a step in to there. Hell, my father didn't even know I was coming, so I had no reason to. There, on my porch, the memories of Rosewood came back to me and in a whirlwind of emotions, all the pieces of my puzzle that had been missing came right back.

Within minutes of sitting down, though, I saw a flustered Hanna Marin storm out of Spencer's house. At first I didn't think anything of it, until I saw her come over in my direction, hands balled in to first, and face so red she looked like she saw about to explode.

"What are you doing here?" I could tell she was trying to maintain a calm, serious tone, but her voice raised just a little higher than it usually was, and if looks could kill, I would have dropped dead right there.

"I'm sorry, did I do something wrong?" I returned, giving her a questioning look.

"Yeah, you did. You have one of my best friends convinced everything's just peachy between you two." She cocked her hips to the side, placed her hands on them and gave me a typical "I'm a bitch and you're in shit" look that she seemed pretty good at doing.

"Okay, let's get something straight," I started. "You're barging on to my porch to tell me that I wasn't allowed to talk to Spencer, right?"

"Yeah, you got it right. I don't know what your plans are or why you're here but I swear if you hurt her, you are dead. And I mean that, Cavanaugh."

I raised my eyebrows for a moment. Well, someone was in a bitchy mood.

"What exactly did I do to make you so mad at me?"

"She hurt when you left."

"I left because she had her doctor boy, and she wanted me to go." I shook my head. While she was getting angrier by the moment, I was managing to remain perfectly calm. I think that made it worse, but I found this more funny than anything. Who did she think she was? "Anyways, you have no place to be telling me that I can't try to fix things with her. So, why don't you turn around and go home. I think you need to change your tampon or something."

There was a sharp pain in my cheek as her palm came in contact with it, and she dug her fingernails above my cheekbone.

"One wrong move," she said. "One wrong move and I'll personally make sure you're done with."

With that, I watched her storm back off my porch and down the road - presumably to her house?

Did I just get threatened?


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **I'm sort of doing a lot of writing lately, mainly due to it being summertime. So, I'll probably be updating regularly. Anyways, this is chapter three and it's been less than twenty-four hours since chapter two, so knowing my luck it sucks because I took minimal break. I would love yo hear your guys' opinions on this, too, just so you know. So please review this if you like it - or even if you don't. Tell me what I could work on, what sort of stuff you guys wouldn't mind seeing, just whatever. Anyways, this is a little shorter than the last chapter, but it's in my usual range so I won't call it short.

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**Spencer:**

I didn't expect that the first time I would be in his room, we would be on entirely opposite sides of the bed, both staring at the ceiling, as we slowly pieced together how life had been without each other around. I'm not surprised, however. Life doesn't seem to go well for me. Even more, I didn't think that the first words he would say to me were that my best friend threatened him two days before.

I have to say, that was a surprising thing to hear. I mean, I know Hanna had blown up when she'd found out he was around, but I never expected that much from her.

"What... what did she say?" I asked him, my mouth slightly agape as I turned my head to face him. He was already facing me, his beautiful blue eyes on me and I looked away from his glance.

"Well," he started, "I think I'm going to quote her here." He paused, and suddenly I could feel a han don my shoulder, rough but caring, and I turned to him once again, the corners of my mouth turned up in a small smile. His hand traced down the soft skin of my inner arm until he reached my hand. Playfully, I pulled my hand away and grinned. Toby wasn't one to give up, however, and I'm nearly positive he knew I wasn't being serious about pulling away. His hand trapped my fingers, sliding his own in the spaces between them.

They fit just perfectly. Ugh, it was wonderful.

"Her exact words were 'one wrong move and I'll personally make sure you're done with'," I watched him roll his eyes and let out a chuckle. "She seemed a little bitchier than usual, so I told her to change her tampon... Probably helped none but she was standing there red-faced yelling at me that I was going to hurt you and she gave me this look like she was about to murder me... I had to say something to get her to go."

"Are you serious?" I slid my hand out of his, and slapped it playfully. Neither of them were going to make this an easy situation, but i could only hope the angry in Hanna would go away after a little while. It would get old before long, and annoying.

Especially if she was threatening him.

I tried to prevent it, but the smile on my face caused by Toby's presence slowly faded away because of that.

"Mm, don't take it seriously, Spence." He shook his head lightly, passing it off as nothing.

"Toby, it's Hanna. If she wants something, she will get it." I sighed. "I'll just... make sure she's relaxed a bit. I think something was going on with Caleb then." I hadn't talked to her since she stormed out of my house, but I did have an ounce or two of sympathy in my body, and I had to admit, I did feel bad about what I had said. I mean... if she was having Caleb issues right now, I had done nothing but piss her off even more.

I let out another sigh, pulling my hand away from Toby's and taking my phone out of my pocket. I guess I needed to fix the thing with Hanna if I wanted to manage anything successful with the man beside me.

He didn't respond, though, and silence filled the air. I loved that we could do that, just lie there quiet and not have it awkward. There were so few people I could have that with.

It didn't end, though. I swear we lied on his bed for hours, our stares occasionally switching between each other and the ceiling. In sync, too, like we were able to tell just when the other wanted us. It seemed to perfect. Everything did.

And, when the clock read 5:42 pm, and we'd been lying there for over two hours, I realized there were things that had to be said.

"Toby," I said, catching his attention.

"Hmm? What's up?" He turned to his side, supporting his upper body with his elbow and giving me a questioning look.

"Toby... You know the basics of what went on here, right? The whole thing with Jenna?" I didn't turn to look at him, just kept my eyes straight toward the ceiling, counting the tiles to keep myself busy. I eyed him out of my peripheral, though. He seemed hesitant to resond.

"I know... I know that she was harassing you and your friends... I know that she caused a bunch of stuff that really hurt you guys. And I wasn't there for you through it." He seemed unhappy with himself, and the quiet tone in his voice proved that. He bit down on his lip. Was it just me, or was he doing that more than before now? Had that just became his quirk for any sort of unhappy emotion? Every time it happened, I was prepared for something bad to happen or that something bad had happened, and I hated feeling like something was wrong. it _couldn't_ be wrong.

"You... You weren't there because..." I hesitated.

"Because I left, because you had your doctor. That's all done with, right? I'm not going to go through that again?" At first he'd sounded a bit angry, like he hated just the idea of it, but then his voice softened. I watched him shake his head, his shaggy brown hair in to his face. I'd say he needed a haircut, but his hair long was growing on me.

"See... The thing is... Emily lied to you." I paused, turning away from him. I didn't want to admit to this. I didn't want to tell him that I'd purposely gotten rid of him, but he had the right to know, and the good in me tore past the secretive part. "I... You were in danger. She... Toby, she was the head of a team of people who were out to get me and the girls, and you were in the way, and I had a feeling your accident was no accident so I asked Emily to tell you I was seeing Wren so that I could get you away from the danger."

"Spence, you don't have to justify yourself. What's done is done." I could tell he was leaving something out, though. I could tell that there was something he didn't want to say, and I could feel that he was angry about it or something. he had a right to be, but it broke a piece of me inside. "Just... Let's put it behind us. All of it." I twisted my body back towards him, but now he was eying the ceiling like I had been, trying to find a distraction.

"Toby, I'm sorry," I whispered.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **Two in one day, huh? Well, I guess I really do have no time. I have the next bit of this planned out now. I'm thinking of alternating views every other chapter or so, though I might not go with that. Anyways, thanks to the followers, the favorites and all the readers If you have a spare moment when you're done, please review! What do you think might go on in the future?

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**Toby:**

I fellt disgusted, used even, when she told me she'd lied to me, despite her attempt at justification. All this time, I had been living a lie. Thanks to Spencer, I had been living a lie. For a year, I believed she didn't care for me. I'd believed she'd cheated and been in love with another man, and now she was there, on the other side of my bed, telling me that it had all been a lie and that, instead of simply telling me what was going on, she'd shattered my heart... to, what she said, protect me?

I'd never thought it was possible for me to be angry at her like I was now. I wouldn't let her know that, though. We could both keep secrets.

"Look, Spence," I said with a sigh, my lips pressed tight together afterwards as I tried to thing of something to do or say, or something. Honestly, I wasn't in a good mood now, but there was no way I was about to that that out on Spencer, regardless of the bullshit she'd told me. I'd let that be behind us. I mean, she'd thought it was for the best, and maybe it was. After all, Jenna ended up as pissed off at me as I was at Spencer's doctor of a fake boyfriend.

"Toby, you're not happy," she stated, sidling up to my side. Her head rested in the crease of my neck, burying her face, and one arm fell across my waist. It put a smile on, turning to look at her. Instinctively, I pulled her close, moving my head so that I could see her pretty face, looking in to her dark chocolate brown eyes.

"Well I just found out the girl I love lied to me about having another boyfriend so that she could get rid of me," I told her, pursing my lips. "So, I'm about as happy as I can be given the circumstances. Don't worry about it, though. I'll get over it."

"You make it sound so bad.." Her voice got quiet, barely audible, and she let out a sigh. I could feel her breathe against my neck, making the skin tingle, and I ran a hand through her hair.

"Well... It feels bad, and in the end you hurt me for nothing."

"I hurt too."

"You were the reason for that, however." I paused, glancing up at the ceiling again. Spencer adjusted her position, fitting better in to my arms - if that was even possible. As mad as I'd been mere minutes ago, I was entirely incapable of being mad at Spencer Hastings whle she was cuddled up to me. Hell, I even had problems being mad at her when she wasn't.

"Yeah but I did it for you."

"And where, my dear Spencer, did that us?"

"Here. Safe. Without any Jenna. Without any A-team. Without danger. So we can be happy." She kissed a sensitive spot in my neck, and I smirked. Her hands slid under my pale brown t-shirt, running up my chest.

"Spencer, do you really want to go there right now?" I asked, smirk still worn on my face as I leaned in to kiss her.

"Mmhmm, we need a change of topic," Spencer mumbled between kisses. "I thought-" kiss "'that maybe-" kiss "-no topic was-" kiss "-better." She pushed me off of her until I was sitting up, and in one fluid motion she'd climbed on to my lap, one leg on each side of my hips. We eagerly attacked each other's mouths with kiss after kiss.

As I was about to pull her shirt over her head, I heard the sound of a door shutting downstairs. Spencer heard it too, it seemed because her head shot up, alert, and she gave me an inquisitive look. "Is it safe to continue or...?"

"I'll close the door, we'll be fine," I returned with a smile, sliding her off my lap and getting up to close the door.

"Toby?" I heard a voice from downstairs. Nope, I was wrong. I closed the door behind me.

"Up here dad," I called down, and there was squeaking as a man in his early forties with hair that was starting to gray made his way up to see me. "Uhm, my... girlfriend... is here, so whatcha need?" I wasn't too sure whether or not Spencer was my girlfriend, we hadn't talked about that, but it seemed reasonable to assume, given the way we were with each other. She appeared to like it, from what I was able to catch, and I liked it.

"You got a girlfriend already?" His eyebrows arched, as if he didn't believe me.

"Well, I got a girlfriend back, to be technical... You never met Spencer, you didn't seem to like her much, but uh, that's who. And, if you don't have anything you want, I'm going to go back to her." I bit my lip, eying the ground. Conversations with my father weren't exactly the easiest things. At best we were acquaintances. We didn't tend to socialize with each other much, and we didn't really want to.

It made things slight on the awkward side.

"That's the Hastings girl, right? From down the road?" He leaned over, trying to peer in to my room. "Mind if I start new with her? Since she's already here, I might as well meet 'er." I bit my lip again.

"Are you sure?" He nodded. "Well, I guess you're meeting Spencer then." I didn't know whether to be happy about this or not. Slowly, and slightly nervously, I opened the door and walked in, giving Spencer an apologetic glance before my father followed in behind me. I didn't stick with him, preferring Spencer's company.

"Spencer," I said to her. "This is my father. Michael Cavanaugh. Dad, I think we discussed who she is already." I was bored of this already. Was it obvious to him that I wanted to get it over with? I hoped it was.

"At least give me a proper introduction," Mr. Cavanaugh insisted, moving over to the bed where Spencer and I were. I already had my arm wrapped protectively around her, and I kept a close eye on him. I didn't trust him with anything in my life, after my mom died he'd done a less than good job as a father... He was never going to earn that back.

"Dad, meet Spencer. She's absolutely wonderful, and you hated her because she was involved with Alison."

"Ouch," Spencer chuckled. "Bite 'em already, why don'tcha?" I rolled my eyes, and at that point my father finally seemed to get the hint that he was unwelcome in my room.

"Well... Nice to meet you, Spencer." With that, he was off, and I was about to go back to kissing Spencer when she pulled away.

"What?" I faked a whine, and then she pointed to the door that daddy wonder had left open. "Right," I remembered with a sigh, once again pulling away from her, this time for -hopefully- the last time today.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **Sorry for missing yesterday's update. I suppose posting two the day before make that okay, but whatever. Anyways, over the course of the night we hit 1000 views. On four chapters. Holy crap. Thanks all of you for reading 3 So, with no further adieu, here is chapter five and please take a moment to review once you're finished! (Oh, and I think I'm doing this in mostly Spencer view with the occasional Toby glance... Just seem to like it better that way.)

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**Spencer:**

The next day was a Monday, which brought school to me once again. It was getting stressful now, being almost halfway through second semester. That meant midterms were inching closer as the days came by. I didn't like that. However, I did like the UPenn acceptance letter that appeared in my mailbox before I went off to school. I swear I nearly cried when I pulled the manilla envelope out of my mailbox - out of excitement, of course. I'd rushed back in to the house and, without even waiting for anyone else to wake up, I tore it open.

Next thing I know, my squeals had brought my parents down the stairs. Excitement had my body shaking, and I wore a bog, ecstatic grin on my face as I handed them the letter.

Being a Hastings, getting accepted to an ivy league school was possibly the best thing that could happen in the family. This was quite possibly the best week I had ever had in my life. No, more than quite possibly. It _was_, hands down. I felt like I was about to burst. I nearly had considered the possibility that I hadn't been accepted, with the ridiculous amount of wait time, but no. Here the acceptance letter was, on my kitchen counter, proving to me just how wrong I had been about that.

I was still on the verge of exploding when I left my house. About to enter my car, I heard an oh so familiar voice.

"Want me to take you?" I turned to see a tired looking Toby, hands in his jean pockets, walking towards me. "I wasn't stalking you or anything... I just saw you and figured I'd ask. What happened a few minutes ago? All I saw was you grab something from your mailbox and run back inside like your life depended on it."

"Because my life _did_ depend on it," I told him, giving him an enthusiastic hug. "Guess what?" I asked him, beaming. His mouth opened, but I quickly cut him off, not willing to wait. "I got accepted to UPenn!"

"Congrats." He gave me a lopsided smile, and his arms wrapped around me. Ugh, perfect. Why was everything being so perfect? Not that I objected. "Let's celebrate after school, then? I'll take you wherever." He smelled like Old Spice and nature, even more perfect. Why did he have to suggest tonight, though? Why not tomorrow night? I didn't want to push off either him or the girls, who I already had plans to see tonight.

Hanna included, of course. She'd relaxed a bit, but I was still yet to mention that I'd heard about her moment with Toby.

"Uhm, Toby... I can't do tonight," I let out a soft sigh, still not releasing his warm body. "I... I have to see the girls. But you can drive me if you want, I won't say no."

"I won't say no either," he chuckled, and I could feel his arms slowly loosen. _No_, I wanted to say, _don't let go, not yet_. I suppose we couldn't stay there forever, though. Seperation was inevitable. That and school would start in... appproximately half an hour. I was too occupied to look down at my phone and find out the actual time.

From there we reached his truck, and like a gentleman he opened the passenger side door for me before crossing the truck to the driver's side. The whole ride I had my eyes on him, like he was the best thing to possibly exist, and once we reached the front of Rosewood Day, he even opened the door to let me out. Like a _gentleman. _He gave me a sweet, chaste kiss, put his hands on my waist and pulled me close, telling me that he would see me as soon as I wanted him too, and then he was off.

And to think that I had once thought that he was capable of killing Alison.

School passed by quickly, which was fantastic. I'd felt no need to sit through AP History, English and Law for what seemed like hours upon hours on most days. Maybe it was the fact that I wouldn't be heading straight home to homework tonight. Tonight I would tell the girls about my acceptance - squee -, have a good time and put off homework until I got home. Sure, I'd probably have to stay up late, but even a studious Spencer Hastings needs a break once in a while, right?

"Spence, you seem like you're on top of the world," Aria joked, resting her body against the brick and cement ledge at the entrance to Rosewood Day. I rolled my eyes playfully, eying the cloud-free March sky. It was unusual. Most years, around this time, we usually had some rain. It was now the ninth, and there hadn't been a drop. But who cares about rain, really? The plants would live without another day. Plus, I'm nearly positive that the forcast had said there was rain due tomorrow.

My eyes went wide as I realized that. No, there could not be rain tomorrow.

"Uhm, Spence, you okay? You just got bug eyed." One of Aria's eyebrows was arched. Her expression read "are you alright?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. I just remembered something, no big deal. Anyways, where are Emily and Hanna?" I shook my head, snapping back to reality. As if my magic, as soon as I said that the pair walked out of the school side by side.

"Right here," Hanna piqued in, obviously overhearing my question. "Now, we're headed to my house, right? To the car!'

I froze then. "Shit."

"Is something wrong now?" Aria tossed me a concerned look.

"I sorta kinda forgot about that.. I got a ride to school," I admitted, sheepishly eying the ground. "I entirely forgot that I was the ride."

"Well, we'll live." Emily said. "Look, I can get my mom to pick us up." With that, she took out her phone and walked off, dialing her mother.

"Toby, I'm assuming?" Hanna asked, a skeptic look on her face.

"Hanna, I don't want to start that again. Oh, but I do have a bone to pick with you." She looked at me, confused. "Did you perhaps go over to his house the other day and threaten him?"

"What are you talking about?" She looked at me with this precious little innocent face, as if what I'd accused her of was false and Toby was lying to me. "I just spoke to him, he looked lonely," she said, her voice all sugary and sweet. She was obviously lying, and i could tell that she knew I knew. She gave me shifty eyes as I glared at her.

"What?" She asked, acting meek like she didn't deserve the look I was giving her.

Ugh, I had a feeling this wouldn't be over soon.

"Hanna, please don't be an issue. I'm sorry about what I said about and Caleb, can we just pretend that day never happened and go about with our lives without you hating on Toby? Come on, please," I tried to surrender, call neutral grounds between us, but now it seemed to be Hanna's turn to glare at me.

"Fine. We can pretend none of that ever happened and pretend that I don't know that something's up. My my words to him still ring true," she returned, acting all serious. She extended a hand, and we shook hands.

"Wait..." Aria interceded. "You threatened Toby? When?"

"You remember on Friday when I left the house?"

"After you and Spencer got in the arguement?"

"Yeah. Well, he was a victim of opportunity, just sitting there on his porch like he had no care in the world and I wanted to punch his smug little face. But I didn't, you're welcome Spencer." She paused. "I'll admit, I was in an extra bad mood that day." Now she just seemed amused about what she'd done. Oh, tyical Hannah.

"So guys, my mom will be here in ten," Emily said, returning from wherever she'd left to call her mom. With that, we waited.

Half an hour later we pulled up to the Marin household, chatting about silly things as we walked to the door. Hanna was holding true to her end of our bargain, acting like nothing bad had ever happened between us, and all of them were questioning why I seemed to antsy looking as we came to the door. Oh, I couldn't wait to step inside and tell them what I'd got in the mail this morning. They would love it. University couldn't hurt me, so Hanna would have no reason to be upset - not that Toby would hurt me either... purposely, at least, that much I knew.

I was the last to enter the house, and we gathered in the living room.

"Guys, I got accepted in to UPenn," I told them. The words rushed out of my mouth, unable to wait any longer, and a huge grin was on my face.

Right then, stealing my thunder, there was a knock on the door. In that very instant. Who could possibly be so important they had to steal my thunder from me?

Normally, I would have answered Melissa, but she'd been pretty good about that for the last few months.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **Soo sorry for the delay in the chapter. I sorta got busy the last few days but here it is, I hope you guys like it. I sorta know where the next couple chapters are going and soon we're going to see a very familiar face pop up. Any guesses who? Once you're done, hit the review box and guess. I'll shoutout the first person to guess correctly at the start of the next chapter. :)

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Of course, Hanna's front door opened to reveal a Caleb, smirk on his face, as he pulled her in for a kiss. Part of me wanted to hit him, though I knew I never would get around to doing that, and part of me was glad to see him here... It meat he was back after what seemed like ages. Him and Hanna could get along again. He stole my thunder, though. Hanna wouldn't care about what I had to say when Caleb just showed up at her door.

Damn it.

Try to be happy, Spence, I told myself, putting a smile on as Caleb came in, closing the door behind him and giving Hanna a sweet kiss. The girls found it adorable, the cute little grins on their face said it all.

Caleb," I said, smile on my face, once he detached from Hanna.

"Spencer, how're you?"

"Well, actually, you just interrupted her. Seemed like she was saying something important," Emily chimed in, eying me. Instinctively, I lowered my head. At least she was going to seem interested.

That was rude of me to think. They cared. They were my best friends, they had to care.

"Oh, yeah! Spence, what was happening?" Hanna asked, smile lighting her face as Caleb held her from behind. Glancing up, I bit my lip.

"Okay, guys... Guess where I got accepted?" I started my announcement for the second time, anxiously glancing at each of them. Hanna was about to respond, but I cut her off. "University of Pennsylvania."

Next thing I know, I'm about to collapse as a tiny little Aria tackle-hug's my side.

"Congrats, Spence!" She was the first to say it, bringing a smile to my face. Team Sparia, of course. That would never end, she was the best little thing ever.

Well, besides Toby and UPenn and everything coming back together and it all seemed wonderful.

It all seemed just perfect, which scared me.

I hadn't been allowed to have 'perfect' in my life for... well, ever. Melissa was always the perfect one, and then A got in the way, so why should now be any different? How long would this ask?

Ugh, I couldn't be second-thinking this.

I can't doubt my perfection, or it _will_ go away. I have to believe in it.

"That's just what you wanted, Spence? That's so beautiful. But now you're going to be away from me," Aria said, putting on a faux frown.

"You know what, let's celebrate!" Hanna announced. The Caleb and the university and life and ugh, I'm so glad all the bullshit with Jenna is over. I think we _all_ are, but I think it came out best with me. Toby came back. I got accepted to the university I wanted to go to. The major stress in my life was lifted. Melissa and I started getting along.

Maybe that's why I was so scared the perfection would fall apart.

Now that everything's good, there's so much that could fall apart.

Ugh, I need to stop thinking about that. Remember - Hanna just suggested celebrating. Yes, let's celebrate. I deserve to celebrate.

With that in mind, we got in Caleb's car - there was barely enough space for all of us, but we fit - and headed of to Philadelphia.

We spent three hours in Philadelphia, getting there around four and leaving around seven. We were back by eight, at which point in time we opted to go to the Apple Rose grill. Hanna let Caleb go, making it just the four of us. I like Caleb, yes, but honestly, I'd wanted today to be us. That had been why I'd blown off Toby... I would have easily, and willingly, dragged him along on our escapade in the city.

I was good about it, though, and never did I once complain about Caleb's presence. I didn't want to either, it was kinda nice to have him around. After over a year, you get used to having someone around, after all, and it wasn't like Caleb was a bad guy, unlike we originally thought. Of course, we thought everyone was a bad guy.

Dinner was sweet. Emily claimed it was all on her, since she "rarely paid for anything with us", but we weren't quite willing to agree with that. We all paid our share, ate wonderful food, chattered about silly things like boys and life and things that just seemed... so innocent, after what we'd seen.

I'd had fettucini alfredo with a side chicken caeser salad, and it had been glorious.

"So, how's life been for all of us? We haven't just sat down and had a simple conversation in a while," I said after swallowing a bite of my alfredo. The girls all looked up.

"Well, my mom is still dating half of Rosewood. And, you know, Zach seemed head over heels for her. That's so not fair to him." Aria, as usual, was the first to respond to me. "Ezra got a job in Philadelphia... He's potentially moving there so that could be interesting. I mean, it's not too far away but it's a bummer, and my best friend just got accepted in to her favorite university and I'm happy for her." She grinned at me, and we high-fived across the table. Ugh, Aria had to be one of the best things in my life. One of them.

"Well, Caleb's back and Toby's back so now we all have boyfriends slash girlfriends at the same time again," Hanna added, twirling her fork in her spaghetti. She was looking at it like she was interested in it.

I could tell it was still just because she didn't want Toby around. Well, at least she's trying. Could I really ask for more?

"You know, if he's around... I think we should get to know him. Cause, you know, we all know each other's partners except for Toby. He just.. sorta sticks with you and doesn't talk to anyone. And I won't like him until I know him." It was a reasonable suggestion, I had to admit. The fact that she would try was beautiful.

"Maybe one day we could all have like a giant quadruple date or something. All get to know each other," Aria added in.

"Would Ezra like that?" I asked, eyebrow raised.

"Well he's part of my life, and if he loves me, he'll agree and we can all hang out," she paused, "except... maybe we shouldn't call it a 'date', just a get together. A date with eight people sounds really awkward." That brought laughs from all of us.

"Well, I'll see if Toby will agree," I said, thinking about it for a second. Hmm... Would he really want to be up close to a girl who threatened him, his ex-best-friend, and a pixie of a girl he didn't know, plus their partners? This could end up quite interesting.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: **Shoutout to cottoncandyscream, who was actually the only one to guess. I was hoping I'd get a bit more going on... But yes, it was Wren. Simply because Wren causes trouble and honestly I love Spoby fluff but drama is nice. Anyways I know the last chapter was short but I hope I make up for it with this one. I'm nearly at 2000 views now... And thanks to all the reviewers, followers and people who favorited this story. I love you all. With no further adieu, here's chapter seven.

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**Spencer:**

The next day came before I talked to Toby, and I didn't even get a chance to before school. It sucked a bit, but really, it just meant all the more I would want to talk to him _after_ school ended. I'd barely got through the doors of my my house before I had my phone pulled out, dialing Toby's number, and ignoring whatever Melissa was trying to say to me as I walked in. Probably just a simple 'hey Spencer' or 'how was your day?'. Right then I had more important things to get to.

I sat in one of the chairs along the counter, resting my arm on it and leaning slightly forward as I waited for Toby to respond. It took three rings before I heard the click as he answered the call.

"Toby," I said to myself as I heard the sound of the phone call connecting and the man on the other line say hello.

"Spencer," he returned. "What's going on?" He sounded slightly confused, which made me giggle. Silly Toby.

"We-ell, I believe we were going to see each other today," I said in a sing song voice, swinging my legs and twirling my hair with my available hand as I spoke, like a schoolgirl with a crush. "Or did you find something better to do?'

"Spencer, I'm available, of course," He chuckled. I could visualize the way he'd shake his head, eyes sparkling and and hair falling in to his face, an amused, dimply grin on his face. "Wanna meet up at your house or mine?"

"Let's just stay at my place, okay?" I asked, biting my lip as I waited for his word of approval.

"Okay, Spence. I'll be there as fast as I can." The other side cut off, and I put my phone on the counter beside me. He wouldn't take longer than ten minutes to get there - and that was if he delayed, so I didn't expect to be sitting there alone for long.

I wasn't even there for a minute before Melissa's body took the seat next to mine, giving me a knowing look. Ugh, I was about to get another disapproval lecture now, wasn't I?

"Toby's back in town?" She asked, inquisitive tone in her voice. She rested her elbow on the table, supporting the side of her face in her palm and looking at me. I gave her a nod. "You know, I never really expected to see him back here."

"What's your point, Melissa?" Not angry, or being argumentative, just honestly asking her the question. I didn't want to sit here an listen to her talk and budge around what she was trying to really say.

"Are... you two... like, a thing again?" She asked, biting down on the corner of her lip. It was the same way I did it - and our mother. Something about Hastings made them _so_ similar. Sometimes it sucked, especially the more you realized it.

"I... I don't know what'll go on," I admitted honestly. Yes, I wanted Toby around. I wanted the exhilarating feel of kissing him, how easy it was to talk to him, the way things felt better now that he was back. "We're going to try, though."

A rap on the door excused me from this conversation, which was getting too much for me. Eagerly, I hopped off the stool I was sitting on. I basically ran over to the door.

"Toby!" I exclaimed, opening the door and latching on to the visitor's body.

"Nice to see you too, Spencer." I looked up, he had his familiar goofy grin on his face, the one I loved to see.

"Come on in!" Leading him in by the hand, I glanced in to the kitchen. Melissa was right where I left her, and I didn't know if I wanted to tread that territory right then. So, rather than that, I pulled him up the stairs to my room.

We retired in to the comfy chair by my window, overlooking the street. It was one of the first spots we actually shared with each other. He took up the chair, It look his lap, leaning against the arm of the chair and having my legs over the other edge. One of his hands ran through my hair, and we spend ages just looking at each other, talking over the events of the day.

It took us an hour to finish talking about our days, all the random little things that didn't really matter, and what we intended to do for the day... We obviously had no intentions of spending the whole thing in the little chair like it was the best thing in the world - though it was one of them, at least in my eyes. It had Toby in it, after all.

We decided upon dinner at Apple Rose Grille, the same place I had visited with the girls the day before. It hadn't been a hard choice - Rosewood didn't have too much variety and we didn't feel like going out of our way to Philadelphia when we could just settle with here.

So, once we'd had enough of the chair - never enough of each other, it seemed like - we got up, loaded in to Toby's truck (in which he graciously held the door for me) and made our way to the little popular restaurant of ours on the other side of town. He had one hand on the wheel, the other's fingers were intertwined with mine, and it was wonderful.

"I'm just going to go to the bathroom," he said to me before running off in the direction of the men's room.

"Spencer, imagine seeing you here." Less than two minutes later my peace was ruined as an ever so familiar voice popped up from behind me.

"You shouldn't be here," I said, turning around to face the man. My eyes narrowed and my brow furrowed.

I couldn't deal with this right now.

**Toby:**

I was coming back from the bathroom when I heard Spencer talking to someone, and I recognized the accent of the man who she was talking to. A peek around the corner confirmed my suspicions. It was the sleazeball, Wren, the one that kissed her when apparently we were broken up... Or maybe that was when we were broken up? She had tried to get rid of me for a bit before I left.

Either way, I stayed behind the wall of the hall leading to the bathroom and listened from afar, out of both of their sights. I wanted to see what he could have to say to her. I wanted to use this to confirm that yes, I could believe Spencer when she told me that her and the doctor had nothing going on.

"You shouldn't be here," she said to him. He was leaning against the table, she was facing him. I was behind a wall less than ten feet away. I wish I could have seen either of their faces. Hers at least. It was the nicer looking of them.

"And who's to tell me I can't go out for dinner?" He returned, fancy british accent and all. I still wanted to punch his smug little face.

"No, you can't be here." Accent on the 'here', like she was trying to keep me away from him.

"Your carpenter back or something? I haven't seen you this tense since he left."

" 'My carpenter' has a name. It's Toby." Accent on my name, as if he deserved to use it.

"So, Toby's back and suddenly you hate me?"

"I... I don't hate you. I can't hate you. But you have to leave me alone."

"So, all the nights spent at my house mean nothing now that boy wonder's here to fly in and save the day again? Sweetie, isn't he the reason for those nights?"

"Don't call me sweetie, and please don't bring that up." Harsh tones started coming through in her voice. At this point, I'd heard all I needed to. My firsts balled up.

"Come on, Spence." He sounded exasperated. Like I cared. "It doesn't work like that. I don't see why you try with him when it was always so difficult to have him."

"And with you it was any better?"

"With me, you seemed just fine."

"Because no one knew," her hips cocked to the side and she placed her hand on her left," and I really want to keep it that way, Wren."

I'd heard more than enough to find out what I wanted to know.

"So I guess it wasn't really a lie when you told me you were with him, was it?" I said, giving her a glare, as I walked straight past them and out the door. This was supposed to be a good time, and then this happened.

Oh, well. It was her choice to fuck things up.

"Thanks, Wren!" I heard her yell. I didn't even turn back to look at her, though.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note:** Okay, I'll admit that I really hated this chapter and I actually wrote the Spoby make-up (won't tell you when that's due to appear, though) before I got around to this... But I still did this. So, please forgive me if this chapter sucks. We hit 2000 hits and 10 reviews in the last while, and we have 13 followers to honestly I adore you all. Thanks for sticking with this Anywho, I'm still not sure where this is going to end up (by 'this', I mean the story) so if you have anything you might wanna see happen, just send me a review or message or something. This is getting long now, so thank you and hope to hear from you. :)

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After flipping Wren off and watching Toby storm out, I burst in to a run. There was no way this was just going to happen. I wasn't going to let it. Ugh, what had he heard? I had to fix this.

"Toby, I'm sorry. I was lonely and sad and he... he came along and suddenly I wasn't in a pit of seeming eternal despair anymore. What was I supposed to do? Just pretend he wasn't there and go about being a depressed, useless child when I could be happy?" Tears welled up at the corners of my eyes, threatening to fall free as I tried to beg Toby to forgive me. I was speed-walking by his side, trying to keep up with is angry pace as we went through the parking lot. Hastings' didn't beg, though, so why was I doing that, though? He obviously didn't care enough to find the time to listen to be before storming out on dinner like he did.

"Toby, I thought you weren't coming back." I continued, rolling my eyes up in an attempt to stop myself from crying. That would just make a scene, and we didn't need any more of those.

"What happened to 'I wasn't seeing the doctor', Spence? You lied to me." His beautiful blue eyes were narrowed, his brow furrowed and all I wanted to do was plea that I hadn't been seeing him. He wouldn't listen, though. He didn't realize that Wren wasn't around until he was gone, because if he did he wouldn't be accusing me of being a liar. Toby wouldn't treat me like this if I wasn't guilty... At least, guilty in his eyes.

"Well you know what, I wasn't fucking seeing him when you left," I cursed, returning the harsh glare. We reached his car, and he pressed himself up against the driver's side door, looking down at me. "Yeah, I kissed him one time, after I told you we couldn't be together, but I was drunk out of my mind and I thought it was you. That was all that happened before you left. You left me, Toby. You left everybody." My tone softened. "You left, and I was alone. I know... I know I asked for it but is it really fair for you to tell me that I couldn't have someone else?"

I paused, but not long enough to give him a chance to respond. "I mean, you probably had all the girls you could want, because you weren't in Rosewood and they didn't know about what happened here so they couldn't judge you. But me... I'm just _me_. Lame old Spencer Hastings, slept with her sisters ex-fiance because she scared the guy she loved away." Salt stung my cheeks and eyes, and that was when I realize that I was now crying.

"Spencer, none of them ever compared to you," Toby finally had a chance to say. "They couldn't. I couldn't want them." He pulled me back in to his arms. My head rested against his chest, and I looked up at him. One finger wiped the tears from my eyes, and I sighed. Even though we were fighting, his touch still made me feel better.

"So... You actually slept with him?" He said, his body stiff. I swear I saw his eyes glaze over with liquid. Oh God, what had I done?

"I'm sorry."

I would've rather given that to Toby any day.

"Look... You know it's impossible to be mad at you when you're crying, right? You look so pitiful and lost that it's just entirely impossible." I nodded against his chest.

"You know, you're right. I can't be mad at you for seeing someone when I was gone." He seemed distant, detached. "I mean, it's not fair of me." He wanted to be mad, I could tell. He wanted to be angry and yell at me and Wren and I was so glad he wasn't doing just that. "Look... Can I just go home? I'll drop you off, but I don't... I don't feel like we should be _together _right now." Still detached, his jaw clenched and his eyes avoiding my gaze.

With a small nod, he walked around the truck, still being chivalrous enough to open the door for me. I gave him a small smile before he walked back around. He didn't even acknowledge it.

The ride home was awkward. It was spent in silence, with Toby's hands rigid on the wheel of his truck and his eyes staring straight forward, never once turning to look at me. it was the exact opposite of how everything had been earlier in the day - less than an hour ago, even. I hated it. I hated it will every piece of me. I hated _me_. I hated me for letting this happen. I hated me for talking to Wren. I hated me for everything. Because of me, this was happening. He probably hated me now, he probably didn't believe a word I said earlier.

Hate seemed to ooze off of both of us.

All directed at me.

Wren probably hated me too.

I'd told him we were over, though. I told him the day Toby came back that I couldn't see him, that things had finally taken the turn for the better. I'd known it had upset him. He'd... It had killed me, hurting him. But he had to understand that I couldn't see him, not with Toby around. Wren was my second-best, I'd noticed. I went to him when things got bad. I couldn't go for second-best when my best was around. I wouldn't. I didn't want to.

But, no. Wren didn't like that. Wren didn't like that maybe I would be happier with Toby around, and that after almost a year of being down, I'd been happy. He ruined it. Actually, no, I ruined it. I should have shooed him away as soon as he came over to me.

"Spencer, I don't think we'll be able to do this."

"What do you mean, Toby?" I barely managed to get a whisper out.

"Us. Spencer, I trusted you, and you lied to me. That's _not _a very good start to our re-relationship." Neither of us looked at each other, only straight ahead, speaking as we saw fit.

"Toby, I didn't lie to you."

"You told me you weren't seeing him."

"I told you that I hadn't been cheating on you with him while we were together."

"Well you certainly left out that you had sex with him after."

"Because that's none of your business! I didn't want you to find out. I didn't want you to find out I'd even talked to him because part of me felt like you'd to this, and you know what? All of me feels ashamed to hell about it."

"We're almost home." he changed the topic, not wanting to listen to me. I sighed.

"Toby, I-" We pulled up to my house.

"I'll see you later, Spencer." No hugs, not even a glance my direction or anything from him.

Before I was even out of the truck I head tears welling in my eyes. They fell free, a sob escaping as well, as I shut the door behind me and made my way in to my house.

Just my luck - Melissa was outside.

"Spencer? You're home early," Melissa stated, walking towards me with one hand extended. She obviously saw the tears on my face because, as I heard the sound of Toby driving off, she came over to me. "Shit, Spence what happened?" As I wiped tears off my cheek, she encased me in her arms, and right there I fell apart.

"Fucking Wren happened." Inside, I wanted to laugh at the double-entendre in my words. I couldn't, though.

"Ouch, Toby found out about you two?"

"In the worst possible way," I managed to choke. She lead me in to the barn, where she was still living, and had been since Ian had been killed. Luckily, it was only her. I would have loved Taylor, which was what Melissa had planned to name the baby until she lost it, but right now the last thing I needed was a whiny baby around me.

"Did he, like, walk in on you two making out or something?" She raised an eyebrow before sitting me down on the couch and walking away to the kitchen. About a minute passed before Melissa returned, donning butterscotch ice cream and spoon. Melissa tried to hand it off to me, which I objected to. No. I didn't want ice cream. Not now, not ever, just no.

"He.. I don't know what he overheard exactly, but Wren was where we went... And Toby went off to the bathroom. Wren decided to talk to me. He brought up... what we did, Toby overheard. He ran out, not even giving me a chance to explain." I tried to hold back any more tears from falling. I didn't want to cry, I wasn't weak like that. I couldn't be weak like that.

"Well, obviously he isn't too mad," Melissa said. I gave her an inquisitive look. How was she so sure? "Well, he stayed long enough to pick you up and bring you here, didn't he? Just give him a few days. If he doesn't come around, then he's not worth your time, Spence."

I sighed. Once in a while I really enjoyed having Melissa's good side.

She was right, I guess.

That didn't change how much this sucked, though.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note:** This is a bit on the shorter side. And once again I'm not overly fond of it. Thanks to all the reviewers, followers and readers who enjoy this :) By the way, I have up to chapter 15 planned right now. And the stuff I want to happen still hasn't happened to so I can tell you it'll be longer than that. That's really all I can say. :/ Enjoy~

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**Spencer:**

I was up almost the while night, my mind on the slew of stuff that had happened in just the last while. At one moment, things had seemed perfect, and the next they were falling apart all over again. I'd known that things were too good to be true. Spencer Hastings wasn't allowed to be perfect, or have perfection, or anything to go right in her life for an extended period of time. I guess I already knew that, though. I guess that was why I was so worried I'd screw things up.

I debated calling Wren, despite the way I'd yelled at him for what had happened. That wasn't a good idea, I realized, though. I would have either yelled his ears off his head or begged him to come see me, take me back, give me someone to cry to since Toby left me. Toby was probably just going to up and leave town again, not even say good-bye to me.

Just the thought had me in tears. Hell, the thought of anything had me in tears.

Around 4:25, the last time I remember checking my clock, I managed to doze off, though. Night killed me, drove me insane. Even my dreams haunted me with the events of the day. Well, the later part of the day.

I hardly got any sleep. The sun beamed in my window through the blinds - and straight in to my eyes. It was 7:30 then. Yay, I would be living off of three hours sleep for the day. Objection. No, I wasn't going to live off of three hours.

I groaned, hiding my eyes from the light with my hand before rolling over in my bed. I nuzzled my face in to my pillow, hoping to God that I would be able to get back to sleep. Things weren't good enough for me to run off of nothing but coffee. (I'd have my dose of coffee even if I slept normal hours, of course, but running on three hours sleep meant five gallons of caffeine just to keep me awake.)

It was a Wednesday, though, which I forgot until I heard knocking on my door and my mother telling me I had to get or I would be late for school. The last thing I wanted was school right now.

But no. Spencer Hastings was a true academic girl and she was going to UPenn and there was no way she could slack in school now, Toby problems or not. After all, that hadn't happened last time I'd had problems going on. In fact, I'd had problems for over a year and I'd never once had issues with being on time.

I'll admit, however, my grades did slip at one point in time, and a couple times I received a B. _B is for bad_.

Reluctant to get another of those, I got to my feet and did what I had to to get through the day.

And then, of course, rinse and repeat.

I did that for three days. With each progressive night, I got a little bit more sleep, being awake started being less of a pain, and by the time Saturday came I was sleeping the full night again. That was wonderful, even if everything else wasn't quite as good.

I hadn't talked to Toby _or_ Wren since the night our fight happened. I was missing both of them, more-so Toby, and it sucked. To be blatantly honest, it just _sucked_ and I wanted it over with.

At midnight on Friday night (or was it now Sunday morning?) I was lying in my bed, Toby's shirt and my undies the only thing on my body, reading a chapter of '_Of Mice and Men_' and thinking about my situation.

Next thing I knew there was a knock on my door. I was confused, who would possibly me visiting me at this time of night?

That was when I saw sun shining in through my windows. I stretched my body, realizing that it was morning and that I had fallen asleep. A glance at the clock told me that is was now just after ten, which meant that I'd slept the whole night.

"What?" I called, hoping whoever was on the other side of my door didn't want to bother me too badly.

"Can we come in?" It was Emily. The girls were here. _Of course_ the girls were here, what was I saying? I'd invited them.

"Uh, yeah," I muttered, hoping I saw loud enough to be heard. Sitting up, I looked around, and then I realized I was still in my pajamas. Well, Toby's shirt, but still.

As the girls walked in, I switched in to suitable day clothing.

"You're... still not awake?" Emily sounded surprised. _Of course_ she sounded surprised - I was generally up in the early hours of the morning, even on weekends.

"Uh, yeah, I didn't get asleep until late," I admitted. I grabbed the still opened book of my bead, bookmarked it, and placed it on my desk. All four of us then proceeded to take a corner of my bed.

"Everything okay?" she sounded concerned, which worried me that I'd done a bad job at hiding the fact that the last few days hadn't been as great as I'd tried to make them out to be. They didn't now what went down with Toby and I yet, and I didn't really want them to.

"Nope, I'm fine," I lied, hoping they wouldn't catch it. "I had a book, I got really caught up in it." I gave a nod towards the copy of 'Of Mice And Men' that I had just moved from my bed. Emily gave me a nod, shrugging it off. Good.

"So!" Aria chimed in, catching all of our attention. "We still on for the get-together? I managed to convince Ezra to agree, you three still good?" I tried not to squirm. Well, my plans not to tell them about Toby and I were about to go down the drain.

"You know that Caleb and I are," Hanna responded, smile lighting her face.

"Samara loves you guys, so she instantly agreed when I told her." Just the thought of Samara was enough to make Emily. It was cute.

It was also my turn, but I stayed silent, unwilling to speak. It stayed that way for a good minute, too.

Aria was the one to break that silence. "Spencer what happened?" Her hazel eyes went wide and her words were rushed.

"Nothing, don't worry about it," I told her, glancing down at my still un-made bedsheets.

"Spencer don't give me that," she chided. I rolled my eyes. "What happened to you and Toby?" More demanding than her previous request.

If it hadn't been Aria, I might have been scared by that tone. I stayed quiet for a moment after, though, debating what exactly to tell them. I had no chance of getting out of this now.

"Toby found out about Wren and I. He's accusing me of lying to him. Whatever." I let out a sigh, looking back up at him. '_He hates me now, he basically broke up with me_,' I wanted to continue with.

"Spence that's not _whatever_ material! When did this happen?" Emily sounded shocked. I turned to glance at Hanna. She was livid, exactly how I thought she would be when this happened - part of the reason I hadn't wanted it to happen.

"Tuesday night," I stated simply.

"You spent over three days keeping this from us?" Aria had the same level of shock that Emily did, if not more.

_Right_, she thought Toby and I were perfect and always would be. Too bad that's way too much to ask for.

"I thought you were just stressing... I should have paid more attention," Emily added, her expression turned sad, like she'd let me down or something. I let out a frustrated sigh,

"Guys don't worry abo-"

"He is dead." Hanna interrupted, furious to the nth degree. Her death threats definitely caught all of our attention. "I told him that if me messed up, he was gone. I was serious when I said that. Very serious. Hanna Marin doesn't kid."

"Hanna, you're a little extreme," I commented, chewing on the corner of my lip.

"No, I'm _reliable_," she retaliated, getting to her feet.

"Oh, you're not going anywhere," I told her, getting up as well and blocking her way out of the room.

I guess she would be here for the night now.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: **This will be shorter than my usual notes, hopefully. Something's revealed here, but is it just Hanna being nasty or true? Anywho, thanks for reading and I hope to hear some of your feedback! (See, it's shorter!)

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**Spencer:**

Hanna stayed mad pretty much all night. I sort of wanted to know why she had such a vendetta against Toby, but at the same time I didn't. So, I let it pass until she calmed down - which took _hours_. I swear, there was no peace in my room until almost 8:00 at night - that almost ten hours of pure Hanna rage. She didn't say anything during most of that time, just sat in the corner of my bed, furiously texting away at who I assumed to be Caleb.

I didn't bother her all night, either. I waited until the morning, after we'd all had a chance to relax and try and have a good time. While the others were downstairs making home of my kitchen, I pulled her upstairs un to my room and shut the door behind me.

"Hanna why do you do this?" I asked her, giving an exhausted sigh. "I mean, I get if you don't like that he came back, but you don't have to hate him."

"Look, Spencer, he was in California. I shouldn't know that, but I do," she stated, sighing at the fact that we were starting this conversation up. "I know that because he was in the same city Caleb's mom lives in, and I was there."

"Look, Caleb and I saw him getting frisky with some little redhead," she admitted. I felt my heart drop a little. I mean, I'd expected him to be involved with other women, but hearing it made things worse. I opened my mouth to speak. "I... I don't know what all happened, but she was one of Caleb's friends whenever he's there. Once he found out that Toby was around Rosewood he told me that... something... had happened there and she was left... heartbroken. I guess I'm just being protective. You don't deserve that." I could tell from the way she danced around her words that she was leaving something out - something significant.

"Hanna don't mess with me," I returned with a glare. "What happened?"

"He slept with her and then he left, from what I got," she replied nonchalantly, checking out her nails. I shook my head, and my eyes went wide. Toby wouldn't do that.

"Toby wouldn't just-" I began to object, mouth slightly agape.

"Spence, apparently he would. Caleb wouldn't lie to me."

There was a pause.

"I don't want him doing that to you," she added. "To be honest, you shoulda stuck with Wren."

I froze, in shock by her words. That was a low blow, especially after she saw the way I'd missed Toby.

"I hate to tell you but Caleb's misinformed," I sneered, opening the door and walking down the stairs without another glance at Hanna.

"Well, you guys should probably go home," I said as I walked in to the kitchen, going for my best 'well I can't have people distracting me' tone. I was followed closely by Hanna, I knew because I could hear her on the stairs behind me. "It's a Sunday, and I have a history test tomorrow."

They listened - when wouldn't I want to study for my tests, after all. Oh, and Hanna knew that she wasn't exactly welcomed here right now after the crap she'd tried to spill on me.

Well, Emily and Hanna listened.

After they left, Aria was still in house house, leaning against the kitchen counter.

"Mind if I stay?" She asked, hopeful look on her face. I gave her a small nod, actually kind of pleased that she had opted to stay behind. Of all of us, I like to think I'm closest with Aria - Team Sparia, after all. "Thanks."

Together we walked up to my room, me staring at the floor. I had the last few days, from the moment Wren came up to me at the grille to what had happened mere minutes ago with Hanna. It all flooded my head.

"So.. what happened with Hanna?" She asked, tossing me a sympathetic look as we both took over one half of my bed. Ugh, this was the last sort of thing that I wanted to be involved with, but I had known she would pop that question to me. Aria liked to keep updated.

I liked talking to Aria.

"Aria, what do you think of Toby?" I returned, staring up at the ceiling. I hoped for a good response - an honest one of course, too, but something good. I wanted to know I wasn't the only one around who didn't see Toby badly.

"He's... okay? I don't really know him," Aria admitted, crossing her arms on her belly and staring up at the ceiling with me. "I know he makes you happy, which actually counts for so much in books, and I know that we all hated him at one point in time... Well, except for Emily." She sounded honest. She always did. I could trust Aria.

"Heh, and in the end she was the one who ended up being right," I added in with a light laugh. I wasn't exactly in a laughing mood, my mind still on whether or not Hanna was lying to me. She had to be misinformed, right? I could never see Toby doing that.

"See? He's not a bad guy. Whatever Hanna said.. Just whatever." I watched her shake her head, moving pieces of her dark hair in to her face. She tried to blow them back in to position, and reluctantly moved them with her hand when she failed. "Can... I know what she did say though?" I nodded slightly a couple times, pursing my lips before responding.

"She told me that Caleb heard from Toby's ex-girlfriend that he's a douche," I stated matter-of-factly, nodding. "To be more precise, she said that the other girl told Caleb that Toby had sex with her and left her. But... Toby's not like that. I mean, if he did, he had a reason to. He wouldn't just do that for the fun of it."

That I was very, _very_ sure about.

"Well, I'm not exactly part of this, and I don't really know Toby, but I know you have good judgement, Spence," she paused, twirling her thumbs together. "Just ask him about it... Are you two talking or is it one of those 'I'm going to be silent and ignore you' fights?" Something caught in my throat, I didn't want to answer.

"It's one of those 'you're a lying slut who cheated on me and I'm never going to talk to you again' fights." I crossed my arms under my breasts, letting out a sigh. "But... We'll fix it. We'll fix it, or he'll leave and we won't be able to or _something_." Right then the conversation hit a down point and I could feel the tears I hadn't want to let go fall free from my eyes. Just the idea of him leaving again, or starting to hate me and never forgiving me was enough to ruin the tearless facade that I'd been able to play so far. Immediately I felt Aria's arm on my shoulder, giving me a soft 'are you okay?' look before scooting closer to me and wrapping her arms around my waist. No, I wasn't okay. I was still crying over something days old - there was no way that I was _okay_.

"Spence, he obviously cared about you enough to come back. He just needs to wrap his head around the fact that you know... You might of had a thing with with Wren while he was gone, and then it'll be okay, and you'll ask him about his screw and toss girl and you'll learn each other's dirty secrets from the last year and you'll make it work." She paused. "He wouldn't come back for you, and admit it, you're the only thing that could have brought him back to Rosewood, just to leave you after a couple bad days."

"I hope you're right, Aria." I gave a soft smile, wiping the liquid off my face. The tears fall all the same, though, bit by bit. I was pathetic, lying there in my bed crying over some guy who didn't even give me a chance to explain that a now-past relationship actually wasn't how it seemed. But... it was Toby. Aria was right, we were going to get through his.

We had to get through this.

"I am. You're a fighter, Spence." She smiled, trying to comfort me, and then I heard my phone go off from its spot on my desk. "And you know, Spence, Ezra and I had problems too. There were things left unsaid and secrets and lies and issues, and we fixed it. If we can, you can."

"I'll grab it for you," Aria offered, who was closer to the desk. She took one arm off of me, reached over to grab the phone and then handed it over. "Wren," she stated, unsure whether or not it was a good thing.

Wren. Of course it was Wren. Life ruiner and maker extraordinaire, all in one. I wasn't even sure whether or not it was a good thing right now.

I at least hoped that this would go at least half decently, though. I really needed something that wasn't negativity going on.

"Hi," I said softly as I clicked the 'accept' button and moved my phone to my ear. My free hand cleared droplets from my eyes as they threatened to join the others in the race down Spencer's face.

"How bad are things with the carpen- I mean, Toby?" It brought a small smile to my tear-stained face at the sincerity in Wren's voice as asked the question, like he knew it was a touchy subject but his concern outweighed the cost of saying it.

"He... Wren, it's fucked. It's entirely fucked." I admitted, choking back a sob. Thinking about the fight was worse than thinking about what Hanna had said. I didn't want to deal with it. Aria's thin, comforting arms wrapped around my waist. After a tight squeeze she ran her hand through my hair, untangling a few small knots she found on the way down. It was comforting, the feel of her hands. Not like Toby, but still comforting. "I... Wren I told him that we... That we... you know." I couldn't bring myself to say the words out loud, not after the affect they'd had last night. I managed to hold back the sad, sobby tones that often liked to associate themselves with my tears.

"Spencer, I never wanted to be trouble, I hope you know that." Like he was trying to worm his way out of this... Or was it his way of apologizing? For the first while, after that night, I blamed our fight on him. But, really, who's fault was it? Toby vanished, which lead me to see Wren, but I chose to see Wren, and he agreed. I'd never blame Toby, though. This wasn't his fault. I wouldn't blame Wren, he did nothing wrong. It couldn't be _all_ my fault, though.

"Wren, I... I told him that I hadn't been seeing you," I managed to mutter. "When I said it... I meant like, before he left. But I don't think he got that because now he thinks I'm lying. He thinks I was cheating and that we've been seeing each other since... since before he left and I think he hates me, Wren." Tears threatened to spill for the umpteenth time today - right after I'd just managed to control the last bout, too.

"Spencer, you seem down." Down was a major understatement, I hadn't been up in days now. "Come over."

"Wren... I can't. I can't, if Toby finds out... Wren, there'd be no chance. He's.. so angry at me right now." Tears threatened even harder to pop through, just the thought of that made it even worse. Oh God, it couldn't get worse. What had Toby said to me? _"I don't think we can do this." _We were over right there, with that one line. He wasn't going to turn back.

I had such an issue with overthinking things to the point where I couldn't handle it.

"I mean... I don't know if we do have a chance still, but Wren I can't risk it."

"Simple solution, darling. I'll come there." Like he didn't even acknowledge that I said no.

"No, I'm fine, Aria's he-"

"I'm coming over, Spencer, and that's it." With that he hung up. I grumbled a little, looking up at Aria with a pained expression.

"I need to go to Toby's." I stated simply, climbing off the bed and wiping the remainders of the tears off my cheeks. I couldn't stick around.


	11. Sorry to Dissapoint

Yeah, I stopped writing in a bad place.

I had this huge idea in my head and then Toby became A and I died almost because of that and then completely lost my muse for this. And it took me this many months just to say that. Sorry to all you guys :/

I may or may not pick this back up after 3B starts up because my Spoby feels may return but honestly I don't think so.

Sorry once again.


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